Why do people get bought and brought mixed up?

[Starllight]

A Monday morning irk of mine… Surely people know the difference?

Bought - past tense of buy

Brought - past tense of bring

As a side note, where I now live in Scotland I have never come across anyone get this mixed up. Perhaps that’s why it irks me when I see it?!

YABU - They’re both very similar and easy to get them mixed up
YANBU - It looks/sounds completely ridiculous when people use ‘brought’ instead of bought

Thank you ! That is a useful one for me as I have to check up every time I use these words.

I do understand the difference between bought and brought though.

Sorry, but it’s a simple fact, there is no reasonable/unreasonable factor at play here. “Roar” and “awe” do not sound sufficiently similar in a Scottish accent to make this recognisable as a pun.

The card might as well say “Have a Roarbulous birthday”. (Because roar and awe rhyme as much as roar and fab)

@SinnerBoy I don't know why people like you will go to such lengths to avoid admitting they were wrong. You falsely claimed it was wrong to say

"I brought it to work as I had to rush."

In fact, it could be correct usage and it could be incorrect usage. You were so keen to criticise someone else and you were wrong yourself!

I know!

This gives you a much wider range of puns to choose from, you are very lucky. 😀

I think its pretty sad that people don't consider dyslexia or learning difficulties.

Feel similar about people who call drawers ‘draws’…

That's about 10% of population if I am not mistaken. I think people do consider it but the issue is more widespread, so it's really not just people with dyslexia and LDs. Well outside of mn at least.
People can moan about falling educational standards while still considering LDs

This is what “awe” and other “aw” words sound like in a Scottish accent. (“craw” is the Scot’s word for a crow”.)

To me, this wholly depends on where you are.

If you're still at school, "I need to bring a packed lunch to school tomorrow" is fine (in fact, I probably wouldn't bother with the "to school", it's redundant)

If you're already at home, I would say "I need to take a packed lunch to school tomorrow".

In this one “Rowena” from Scotland makes the “Roa” vowel sound in her name that we make in “Roar”

Well to me “I need to take a packed lunch to school tomorrow” means “I need to take a lunch to school, drop it off and go somewhere else”.

I need to “bring” a packed lunch to school tomorrow means “I need to go to school with my lunch in my bag, in order to eat it there”.

However that is synonymous with “I need to take a packed lunch WITH ME to school tomorrow.

I can agree that some people would not instinctively use “bring” in this context. But that does not mean that it is categorically, definitively wrong.

It's not as bad as 'could of' and 'rest bite'.

Another thing that's worse than muddling you 'bought' and 'brought'... 'brang' instead of 'brought'.

I actually heard this once. "I brang his homework today".

It’s people thinking of ring/rang.

YY, I don't know if it's a gene as such but the idea of a spelling "gene" is absolutely true to me.

I think what it is is whether you read words as a whole, which is how most people over 20 were taught to read, or whether you decode phonically. Some people figure that out without ever being taught it, almost instinctively, and it makes it easy to spell. Apparently those of us who do this under the old reading system would have been seen as fast learners and learned to read very quickly, this is simply because rather than having to build up a vocabulary of recognisable words which is a longer process, we built up a set of rules similar to the phonics rules which are now taught explicitly to children. I actually remember learning to read, which according to my school records I did at four, and it seeming to just unlock all of a sudden all at once. So presumably I must have done this (I don't remember though and I'm sure I am just lucky!)

Some misspellings leave me completely baffled as to how the author came up with them, because to me that combination of letters could not, or would be very unlikely to make that sound. And effect / affect is not something I have ever struggled with, because effect can be pronounced as uh-fect or if-fect, and if-fect could never be spelled "affect". Affect can be pronounced as uh-fect or aff-fect, and aff-ect could not be spelt "effect". So I simply run the sentence in my brain with Aff-ect or iff-ect and I know immediately which one to use. But many people do struggle with this one, because of the uh-fect pronunciation which could reasonably be spelt either way.

Have you ever come across the riddle/joke where somebody explains how confusing English spelling is by spelling "fish" "ghoti" ?

They explain that it is like taking the gh from enough, the o from women and the ti from motion.

But this isn't actually how spelling works, the gh sound for example never appears at the beginning of a word and ti doesn't exist as a "sh" sound on its own, it's only ever a combination with "tion".

(Yes I am very boring at parties)

I’d enjoy chatting to you at a party @BertieBotts! I can identify with a lot of what you are saying.
I used to post on a forum that had a regular contributor called Chris Ghoti, I assumed it was some sort of Indian name for many years until the origin of the name was explained!

@Catnary - this is really interesting. Instinctively, I would have used "bring" and "take" in the same way, but if asked I would not have been able to articulate that "bring" was used on a journey I had already planned, and "take" dictates the journey. It is lovely to learn something new - thank you!

Thanks. That is only my theory, practice and instinct, mind you- other views are available!

YANBU IMO

The bring/take thing comes up on here quite a lot - they're used differently in Ireland to England (possibly Scotland too?), and obviously emigration has meant that Hiberno-English has had a big influence in the US and other places. Both usages are correct.

From wiki:

Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of British English because it follows the Irish grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; a person determines Irish usage. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". In Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else – and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from).

Don't forget to bring your umbrella with you when you leave.
(To a child) Hold my hand: I don't want someone to take you.

"Some misspellings leave me completely baffled as to how the author came up with them, because to me that combination of letters could not, or would be very unlikely to make that sound"

@BertieBotts this jumped out at me from your post, because this is precisely what my dyslexic DS struggles with. The root of his problem is poor phonological awareness - he quite simply struggles to process the sounds that make up words. Phonics was a nightmare when he was younger, and was not how he eventually learned to read. As a result, his spelling is very random as he finds it very difficult to put together letters and sounds. He tries to do it visually by what looks right, and is heavily reliant on spellcheckers. He absolutely muddle s up bought and brought.

I often wonder if there is a sliding scale of phonological awareness, and that maybe many more people struggle with it than I realise, but not severely enough for a dyslexia diagnosis.

Finally a post about this! YANBU
My pet hate!!!

I have a complete mental block on this. I have no idea which is which, and I do my best to not use either word if I can help it 🤣 I'm not daft, degree educated. No issues with any other words 🤷

I don't know, maybe they just don't have your superior intellect.